News

Well...after many years and quite a few false starts, our first four albums are to see the light of day on vinyl. Finally.

That's right, 'Sunset Studies', 'Strange Bird', 'Moo, You Bloody Choir' and 'Watch Me Disappear' are very soon to be released on vinyl. The first three are double albums housed in gatefold sleeves, while 'WMD' is a single LP.

The release date is Saturday April 16 - as part of Record Store Day. For those of you in Australia, you can try your local independent record store - or, if you prefer, you can order online now via Readings, who are offering a 20% discount on all vinyl sold throughout April. They will post it out to you on Monday 18 April.

Touring plans? There is discussion about some shows later in the year - we'll keep you updated as soon as plans are finalised.

MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE - FRIDAY

Augie March return to the live stage in Melbourne this Friday 17 April at the fabulous Melbourne Recital Centre.

The band have been preparing specifically for this venue and the show will include songs not played live since before the hiatus (and in some cases, well before the hiatus). The Arnold Horns will be joining in, and special guest on the night is Fraser A Gorman.

BENDIGO VENUE CHANGE

The band are also playing in Bendigo this Thursday 16 April, originally as part of opening celebrations for the new Ulumbarra Theatre. However the refurbishment works have not quite been completed in time so the show will now take place at The Capital (50 View St Bendigo). Tickets purchased for Ulumbarra are valid for corresponding seats at The Capital, any queries can be directed to the Box Office on 03 54346100. Apologies for the inconvenience here but this was not within our control.

Tickets for the show are available here. The band is looking forward to getting back to Bendigo for the first time in over six years.

BRISBANE

And! Also finally returning to Brisbane after a six year gap, Augies play The Triffid on Thursday 30 April, and are happy to say the wonderful Mosman Alder have accepted their invitation to play on the night.

HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE ADELAIDE

ASTOR THEATRE PERTH

There are still good seats left in both theatres. We are not sure how long it will be before the band gets back to play in either city after these shows, so we are hoping to see everyone this time round, and play some good long sets.

The video was shot on the green fields of a farm in Victoria and features ‘the kids of Jan Juc'. As for the song itself, here’s what Glenn says about its conception:

"Grumpy old man song probably had its first flash in the sun-drenched courtyard of Preachers bar in Battery Point, surrounded by perky Young Liberals who were just beginning to scent the winds of change to come, fresh loads of premium Sandy Bay manure in preparation for dumping over the existing desiccated turd puzzle. The insidious are always so very nice at the first meeting. In that ozonic (not yet animalic) field, dazed by early afternoon red beer and the sensory marina of interchangeable Calvin Klein aquatics, this pretty misery guts of a tune had its divine spark flinted.”

AN HOUR OF ADAM AND DAVE

Recently Adam and Dave hosted a show on Double J for a full hour playing songs from Melbourne and beyond. To hear the sort of rapport that only comes with a lifetime of repartee, go here.

At some of the very finest live performance spaces on the planet, from the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre to Hobart’s MONA to the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, from the peerless Melbourne Recital Centre to Adelaide’s majestic Her Majesty’s Theatre… from the wonderful Astor Theatre in Perth… to Brisbane’s great new live space The Triffid, to the Ulumbarra Theatre in Bendigo and our old friend Tanks Arts Centre in Cairns: Glenn, Kiernan, Edmondo, Adam and Dave, plus The Arnold Horns at most shows – will play special one-night-only concerts featuring songs from right throughout their 17-year definitive history.

All the various ticket details are here, but note, many of these shows are on sale right now...

Melbournites, Victorians, Interstate and International Guests: following on from yesterday’s announcement of a one-off concert at the Sydney Opera House, the band are now very proud to announce that on Friday 17 April 2015, they will play for one night only at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Very spectacular guest is Fraser A. Gorman and tickets are $60 ($55 Concession).

The Melbourne Recital Centre is one of the finest acoustic spaces in the Southern Hemisphere, a world-class performance facility designed and built specifically to be the best possible place to hear live music.

Glenn, Kiernan, Edmondo, Adam and Dave, plus The Arnold Horns, will play a special concert featuring songs from throughout their 18-year career.

For a band that create rare sounds on a regular basis, and take great care to get their wonderful songs just how they would like them, this concert at the Recital Centre promises to be one for the ages.

Again, we will have more news about some more shows around the country very soon.

So. The Howler shows went so very very well that the band are keen to play some more shows.

Where better to start than the island continent’s most iconic building?

On Sunday 25 January – Australia Day Eve – Augie March will play the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Edmondo, Kiernan, Adam, Glenn and Dave plus long-time brass alumni The Arnold Horns will play a one-night-only concert featuring songs from throughout their 18-year career.

It is particularly fitting that they do so on Australia Day Eve – with the Havens Dumb cover art featuring a wonky Australia, and some of the lyrical content about the wide brown land and how she is faring, especially the album’s cornerstone track, Definitive History.

Should be pretty great!

Tickets are $59 +bf and available from 9am Friday 28 November via this link:

Havens Dumb is out. If you have a copy, we hope you are enjoying it. The reviews have been terrific, but then, is it really possible to fully take in an Augie album in a week or two? Maybe it takes a year? Or five?Anyways, the band are grateful and enthused by all the positive feedback.

HOWLERS

The Howler shows are nearly upon us. The band are busy rehearsing and working out which songs will make the set each night - you can have your say here.

And... we now have Special Guests for each of the five shows: Oliver Mann, Jess Cornelius, Jae Laffer (The Panics), Jen Cloher and Fraser A. Gorman.

Tickets for the first three shows are sold out, there’s a handful left for the Saturday night, and they are selling fast for the Sunday night.

MEENIYAN TOWN HALLAugie March also play at Meeniyan Town Hall on Saturday 25 October. Ticket details here.

MONA – HOBARTAugie March are playing in Hobart on New Year’s Day: Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is presenting a New Year’s Day 2015 concert with Violent Femmes, Augie March and Ben Salter. Tickets from from www.mona.net.au.

HAVENS DUMB VINYLThe 2LP vinyl finally arrived from Europe a week or two late and they all got sent yesterday – so if you ordered a copy on vinyl, it's on its way – sorry for the delay (we ordered it on time I might add). You can order it here.

PRE-ORDERYou can pre-order the album on iTunes here. Havens Dumb is also available on Limited Edition soft-pack CD and also 2LP vinyl - order here.

RRR LIVE TO AIRThe band are playing a very special premiere live performance of tracks from the album, 8:30pm AEST this Thursday 2 October - the night before release - on RRR’s The Australian Mood show, hosted by Neil Rogers. Listen via 102.7FM or online via www.rrr.org.au.

"Any cursory examination of the local music scene will inevitably lead you to the conclusion that Augie March are one of our finest bands. The fact that they are previewing songs from their new album on my program is both an honour and a privilege!" - Neil Rogers - The Australian Mood, 3RRR 102.7FM

FIRST LISTENDouble J have made Havens Dumb their feature album this week. On Wednesday 1 October from 2pm they will be playing the whole album from start to finish. To listen go here at that time.

FIRST SHOWS BACKThe first three Howler shows are sold out, and the fourth and fifth are going fast. There are still some tickets available for the Saturday night and the Sunday night here:

The third song to be released before Havens Dumb comes out on October 3, “A Dog Starved” was a track that arrived late in the recording process:

“Blake, Manley Hopkins and Dylan Thomas all vie for the pedant’s ear in this power pop excursion, not to mention Big Star, XTC and maybe more recently, via XTC, Field Music. For all that heavyweight arty dick swinging it was from a dearth of brawn and a surplus of brain in evidence at what I’d mistakenly thought was the end of the project that “A Dog...” came, tail wagging. It became hurtfully clear that it was for me to go back into the pit and swing a little harder at the face, maybe even shirt off this time, do the shale dance into the hard rock. I wielded my brother’s old red hollow Silvertone and got some nice tones. Four days of basic tracking later we had four new songs, including this one." - Glenn Richards

"A Dog Starved" is available via iTunes from September 12, 2014.

PRE-ORDER HAVENS DUMB

Havens Dumb is out October 3, 2014 on Dark Satanic Records via Caroline. To pre-order the album on double-LP vinyl, CD or digital, click here.

The CD comes with a signed print of the original handwritten lyrics to one of the songs on the album. The vinyl comes with a download card. And there’s a Deluxe Digital version with three extra tracks.

TICKETS TO FIRST SHOWS BACK

The first three shows are sold out, and the fourth (Saturday) and fifth (Sunday) shows are selling fast.

You can pre-order the album on vinyl, CD or digital. The vinyl is 2 x LP gatefold sleeve and includes a digital download of the album. The CD comes with a signed lyric print. Pre-order the digital version and instantly get the track Definitive History. There’s also a Deluxe Version on iTunes, which has three extra tracks.

For all details, or to place a pre-order for Havens Dumb on any format, click a button below:

THE SHORT STORY

After the band went ‘on hiatus’ in 2009, Glenn Richards opted to move from Melbourne to Hobart seeking lower rent and the chance to develop a working studio. This he did, building a soundproof bunker out of a small cave carved out of the wall of an underground garage in Goulburn Street, West Hobart. He began to write and demo songs for something, anything, next.

Inside of a year he’d been given the choice by his negatively-geared landlord to either eliminate the abandoned sibling kittens now in his care or be evicted. In his new rental lodging further up the mountain there was a large garden and a bungalow, which was duly converted to a more ambitious studio and sometimes speakeasy.

Communication amongst Glenn, Adam, Edmondo, Dave and Kiernan flickered to life. The idea of a new album was floated, one made in their own time, under their own steam; an album that was just made until it was made.

Within a year, despite two different wrists, one broken and one wrenched from its preferred location, and the perpetual problem of just getting together, Augie March began putting basic tracks down in the glow of the news they were finally, blessedly, independent once more.

In dribs and drabs over months and eventually over a year drums and bass were laid down at two different Melbourne studios. Vocals and assorted overdubs were then completed in Hobart, Brunswick and Yarraville by individual band members.Of thirty-odd tracks, the list was refined to a smaller number. 14 tracks made the final cut.

The album is mixed beautifully by old friend and engineer illuminati Paul McKercher.

Its themes are various, but times passing, loss, dislocation, distance, new hope and healthy anger are coals in its fire. It contains elements of each release that has gone before and will be cherished by those who have kept faith with this rare outfit.

From tomorrow, Friday 8 August, you can pre-order the album on vinyl, CD or digital. The vinyl comes with a digital download, the CD comes with a signed lyric print, and the digital comes with an ‘instant grat’ track, a song from the album called 'Definitive History', which you can listen to here:

More details on all that tomorrow.

THE SHORT STORY

After the band went ‘on hiatus’ in 2009, Glenn Richards opted to move from Melbourne to Hobart seeking lower rent and the chance to develop a working studio. This he did, building a soundproof bunker out of a small cave carved out of the wall of an underground garage in Goulburn Street, West Hobart. He began to write and demo songs for something, anything, next.

Inside of a year he’d been given the choice by his negatively-geared landlord to either eliminate the abandoned sibling kittens now in his care or be evicted. In his new rental lodging further up the mountain there was a large garden and a bungalow, which was duly converted to a more ambitious studio and sometimes speakeasy.

Communication amongst Glenn, Adam, Edmondo, Dave and Kiernan flickered to life. The idea of a new album was floated, one made in their own time, under their own steam; an album that was just made until it was made.

Within a year, despite two different wrists, one broken and one wrenched from its preferred location, and the perpetual problem of just getting together, Augie March began putting basic tracks down in the glow of the news they were finally, blessedly, independent once more.

In dribs and drabs over months and eventually over a year drums and bass were laid down at two different Melbourne studios. Vocals and assorted overdubs were then completed in Hobart, Brunswick and Yarraville by individual band members.Of thirty-odd tracks, the list was refined to a smaller number. 14 tracks made the final cut.

The album is mixed beautifully by old friend and engineer illuminati Paul McKercher.

Its themes are various, but times passing, loss, dislocation, distance, new hope and healthy anger are coals in its fire. It contains elements of each release that has gone before and will be cherished by those who have kept faith with this rare outfit.

Way back in late 1995, the band – well they weren’t really actually a band at that point, just some friends with a notion of being a band – were invited to play at an art gallery in Brunswick Victoria for the opening of a friend’s art exhibition.

It will be a full nineteen years later, again in Brunswick, just a few streets away from that first venue, that the band will take to the stage again after a five-year hiatus.

On October 29 Augie March will play at Howler, in Dawson Street Brunswick.

Adam, Dave, Edmondo, Glenn and Kiernan will play a special show drawing on songs from their back catalogue as well as some songs from their forthcoming new album.

Here’s the official video for 'After The Crack Up', the first song from the forthcoming album. The video places the band in a piece of cinema history - the world’s first ever feature-length narrative film, made in 1906.

The Story Of The Kelly Gang was at its time a wildly successful film in Australia and abroad. Despite its fame, the historic film was thought to have been lost by 1940 as all known prints had disappeared. In 1976 a lucky find started a chain of events that eventually led to the film being painstakingly restored by the National Film and Sound Archive.

from Wikipedia:

The Story of the Kelly Gang is a 1906 Australian film that traces the life of the legendary infamous outlaw and bushranger Ned Kelly (1855–1880). It was written and directed by Charles Tait. The film ran for more than an hour, and at that time was the longest narrative film yet seen in the world. It was first shown at the Athenaeum Hall in Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia on 26 December 1906 and in the UK in January 1908. In 2007 The Story of the Kelly Gang was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register for being the world's first full-length feature film.

The video is faithful to the film’s silent-movie style. It was directed and edited by the brilliant Colin and Cameron Cairnes, the team behind the Australian horror-comedy 100 Bloody Acres, for which Glenn provided the music score. The Cairnes brothers had also previously worked with the band on videos for 'The Mothball' (1998) and 'The Hole In Your Roof' (2000).

Friends that aren’t in Australia - please note it will be available for you shortly - we’ll let you know details later this week.

The album will see the light of day/the light on the inside of computers later this year.

Again, here is a little bit about the song...

‘After The Crack Up’ is named after Scott Fitzgerald's collection of later life confessionals, itself equal parts pitiful capitulation to life, and heroic confrontation of failure and addiction. It parses the DNA of a less-celebrated branch of the organic Australian male - no beast certainly - but the type who, when faced with the banality of common, uncelebrated existence and responsibility will more than likely opt for extended layover in the increasingly dingy and desperate-looking post-adolescent lounge. Henry Lawson, people's poet, bizarrely makes an appearance with some sage advice though it's unclear whether or not he's really welcome at the bar.

...and the album...

Over the past two-and-a-half years, the band have been quietly piecing together an album. They started with a pool of over forty songs, then gradually sifted through and refined them until they had what they wanted – under their own steam, with no clock running; just making the album until it was made. Much of it was made in Glenn’s home studio in Tasmania, and was mixed by Paul McKercher, who worked on Sunset Studies, Strange Bird and Moo, You Bloody Choir.

So over the past two-and-a-half years, the band have been quietly piecing together an album. They started with a pool of over forty songs, then gradually sifted through and refined them until they had what they wanted – under their own steam, with no clock running; just making the album until it was made. Much of it was made in Glenn’s home studio in Tasmania, and was mixed by Paul McKercher, who worked on Sunset Studies, Strange Bird and Moo, You Bloody Choir.

The first song from it is released tomorrow, but you can listen to it today. It's called ‘After The Crack Up'.

‘After The Crack Up’ is named after Scott Fitzgerald's collection of later life confessionals, itself equal parts pitiful capitulation to life, and heroic confrontation of failure and addiction. It parses the DNA of a less-celebrated branch of the organic Australian male - no beast certainly - but the type who, when faced with the banality of common, uncelebrated existence and responsibility will more than likely opt for extended layover in the increasingly dingy and desperate-looking post-adolescent lounge. Henry Lawson, people's poet, bizarrely makes an appearance with some sage advice though it's unclear whether or not he's really welcome at the bar.